Poverty and Welfare Reform

EDCM wants to see an end to the poverty experienced by disabled children and their families.

Poverty

Disabled children are more likely to live in poverty than other children. This is because parents of disabled children face barriers to entering and remaining in employment and experience additional and ongoing costs as a result of caring for their disabled child. Find out more about why disabled children are more likely to live in poverty and the work that EDCM is doing to end child poverty for disabled children

EDCM's campaign briefing Disabled Children and Child Poverty, launched in 2007, highlights these challenges, and makes recommendations for change.

Welfare Reform

Families with disabled children can apply for specific benefits to help them meet the additional costs of raising a disabled child. These include;

- Disability Living Allowance
- Carer's Allowance
- Disabled Child Premium

Families with disabled children are also entitled to all other benefits that other families get.

Policies that reform the welfare system inevitably have a disproportionate impact on disabled. Over the last year the Welfare Reform Bill has been going through Parliament. This signals the biggest reform to the welfare system in recent history - find out about the work that EDCM has been doing on it.